Google's Daily Hub vs. Samsung's Now Brief: Let's go back to the drawing board

When Samsung introduced Now Temporary alongside the Galaxy S25 sequence, I assumed it was a intelligent thought. Who wouldn’t desire a snapshot of their day, a fast information rundown tailor-made to their pursuits, updates from linked sensible dwelling units and wearables, and helpful day by day insights? On paper, it gave the impression of the excellent addition to Samsung’s array of sensible options. However when Now Temporary really rolled out, and I witnessed it in motion, it rapidly turned clear that it wasn’t residing up to Samsung’s guarantees or the expectations of its customers.

Not too long ago, Google additionally determined to play with the thought of a day by day rundown. With the Pixel 10 sequence, it launched Daily Hub, and I figured possibly Google would lastly get it proper. In any case, it had time to observe Samsung’s errors and hear to consumer suggestions about what Now Temporary was lacking. Sadly, Daily Hub, because it stands proper now, additionally feels extraordinarily unfinished, which explains why Google has hit pause on it.

In concept, each Now Temporary and Daily Hub are designed to function a form of digital diary in your day. A single place the place you may look at your schedule, get reminders, test the climate, and possibly even uncover some content material you’ll take pleasure in. The concept is that as an alternative of opening half a dozen apps, you might have one unified house that offers you a way of what your day appears to be like like. In apply, although, my expertise left me questioning whether or not both one is value utilizing proper now.

Google’s Daily Hub looks like the form of characteristic that ought to characteristic prominently the second you unlock your Pixel. Sadly, that’s not the way it works. Daily Hub is tucked away at the very prime of your Google Uncover feed. You may add it to your At a Look widget to get entry from the dwelling display or lock display, but it surely’s not as distinguished as how Samsung’s Now Temporary exhibits up. Daily Hub doesn’t seem in the app drawer both. In different phrases, I at all times had to make an effort to discover it, as an alternative of Google surfacing boldly for me, the means a characteristic like this actually ought to.

Samsung handles visibility means higher. Now Temporary exhibits up all over the place it is sensible: on the lock display by way of the Now Bar, as a widget on the dwelling display, and even in the Edge Panel. It looks like a device designed to be glanced at, not hunted down. Google wants to catch up right here. When it relaunches, I hope Daily Hub seems entrance and heart, not weirdly buried in Uncover, or exhibits up as a line of textual content in the At a Look widget.

Daily Hub launched as a preview, and belief me, it confirmed. You didn’t get to customise what seems in your day’s rundown. It was supposed to serve up climate, journey data, calendar highlights, reminders, and strategies from third-party apps like Spotify, Audible, and Pocket Casts, and also you had no management over how a lot of that data you need to get or not. It’s up to Google.

Now Temporary, on the different hand, not less than pretends to provide you with choices. You may select what classes present up in your day by day briefing, comparable to wearable battery ranges, information, memorable moments out of your Gallery, sensible dwelling alerts, and extra. The fact, although, is that half of this data doesn’t floor constantly. On most days, I solely see climate data, calendar occasions, and YouTube suggestions based mostly on my account’s watch historical past. However hey, not less than I’ve the selection to allow extra or take away issues I don’t need in my day by day lowdown. With Google’s Daily Hub, I don’t even get that management.

Calendar summaries are one other sticking level. Daily Hub solely exhibits a couple of speedy upcoming occasions (see picture above). If I need the full day, I’m pressured to hop into Google Calendar. Now Temporary, in contrast, really provides me a correct overview of all of my day’s occasions. I simply have to faucet the “View all occasions button” to see each occasion I’ve deliberate for the day.

Climate is one other good instance of how Samsung does issues a bit of higher than Google. Pixel’s Daily Hub exhibits the present temperature, interval. In the meantime, Now Temporary’s climate abstract provides you a have a look at what the day’s climate goes to be like and likewise warns you in the event you ought to anticipate sudden modifications later, like a storm or rain.

Google positively deserved credit score the place it’s due. Throughout the couple of weeks that I used it, Pixel’s Daily Hub really gave me suggestions for tech information and associated YouTube movies as an alternative of no suggestions or irrelevant video strategies like Now Temporary does.

My colleague Joe Maring begged to differ in his preliminary tackle the Daily Hub, however strategies for me have been fairly related. These content material strategies are seemingly based mostly on my Uncover likes and dislikes or my YouTube historical past, so the extra Google’s algorithms find out about you, the higher your Daily Hub strategies shall be. I additionally like the proven fact that I can swipe down to refresh my Daily Hub feed for brand spanking new content material.

That mentioned, whereas I welcome the proven fact that Google’s strategies largely match my areas of curiosity, the precise YouTube video suggestions is usually a little bit of a hit and miss. I’ll typically see new movies from creators I observe, which is nice for a morning catch-up session, however different occasions, strategies would come with commercials, sponsored content material, or simply low-quality stuff I might by no means watch. I might have really beloved to see fewer video suggestions and extra article strategies, however possibly Google doesn’t need to take consideration away from its Uncover feed, which is why there are only a few articles to learn in Daily Hub. You do get article strategies in the part that explores subjects of curiosity, however that’s not the identical factor as having the prime headlines of the day entrance and heart.

In the meantime, Samsung’s Now Temporary is fairly weak in the content material division. Most of the time, it simply regurgitates my child’s YouTube historical past as an alternative of surfacing something remotely related to me. I’ve but to see any helpful information or video suggestions in Now Temporary.

That mentioned, neither Daily Hub nor Now Temporary helps you to really select or handle your content material pursuits and even most popular content material languages, which is a large miss in my books.

Unnecessary to say, neither Daily Hub nor Samsung’s Now Temporary has given me an ideal abstract of my day. There’s no means I might open any one among them and be content material with what they inform me. I’ll 100% bounce into related apps to stand up to velocity with my schedule and issues I need to do, watch, or learn. There are evident omissions on either side, and each Samsung and Google might do much more to make their respective options usable.

As an example, Google didn’t even deliver over Daily Pay attention, its experimental AI-powered audio digest that creates 5-minute podcasts based mostly in your search and Uncover exercise. That may’ve been a killer characteristic for Daily Hub, and the branding matches proper in. Neglect Daily Pay attention, Google doesn’t even supply a readout of your briefing, like Samsung does.

Each Now Temporary and Daily Hub desperately want to floor extra related content material, and do it in a means that truly feels significant. For units packed to the rafters with AI options, these day by day rundowns could be the least “clever” issues they provide. With barely any third-party app help, nearly no customization choices, and imprecise or inconsistent content material sources, each Daily Hub and Now Temporary really feel like they’re crusing in the other way of the in any other case polished Galaxy AI and Gemini-powered options Samsung and Google love to showcase.

The crux of the matter is that neither Daily Hub nor Now Temporary is genuinely helpful proper now. They each really feel like early ideas that want correct consideration and presumably require the corporations to go back to the drawing board. And that’s precisely what Google has achieved by hitting pause on the characteristic and attempting once more.

If I actually had to choose between the two half-baked choices, I might go with Now Temporary for its customization choices and extra complete day by day summaries. However, at the identical time, I might select Daily Hub for its suggestions and cleaner swipe-to-refresh expertise.

Sadly, neither has even come shut to incomes a everlasting place in my day by day routine. Till Samsung and Google let customers absolutely management and customise what exhibits up, I’ll stick to devoted apps and different productiveness instruments.